Niall pulled me into the kitchen and let go off my wrist to run his hands through his hair.

“What. The hell. Are you thinking?”

“Niall, he’s not going to hurt us.” I assured him. “He came here by mistake.”

“How the hell did he even get our address?” Niall accused. “Did you send it to him or something?”

“N-“ I groaned. “No. What the hell are you thinking? He got text messages from me saying that I needed him, only I didn’t send them. Whoever hacked my phone must have sent the messages to him. Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are but at least I’m not being an asshole about it.”

“What?” Niall’s voice softened. “Why him? Who is he to you?”

“We already went over this Niall,” I pressured my hand to his chest, pushing him away. “Look, Jace is waiting outside for a clear explanation and I’m not going to deal with the shit you’ve got up in that brain of yours right now.”

“Well what are you going to tell him?” Niall scoffed. “that his dead ex-girlfriend is actually alive and watch him crumble to pieces?”

“Wow,” I snorted. “Does that mean for once you actually care about him?”

“Come on. We just got a message clarifying that someone was stalking us and then Jace shows up. Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”

“No,” I told him. “I don’t. Jace cant have anything to do with this. The last thing Jace would want is to see me cry.”

“You talk as if you’ve known him for ages.”

“Funny thing is,” I leaned in closer and hissed, “I have.”

“Okay, you know what?” Niall threw his hands up in surrender. “We give him a damn explanation and then he’s out. And he won’t come back. Understand?”

I glared at him with disgust. “You’re not my mother. You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I can call the police and accuse that stupid bastard of intruding,” Niall threatened, the ttips of his ears turning pink. He was mad, but I was pissed.

“Listen to yourself,” I scoffed, gripping them top hem of his shirt. “You act like he’s murdered your family or something. You don’t even know him. For fuck’s sake, you didn’t even shake his hand! Jace is by far the nicest guy I have ever met and you act like he’s some monster.” Niall rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what the fuck you have against him, but push it aside and be nice to him until he proves himself guilty.”

“You don’t-“

“Shut up,” I snapped. “I expect you to introduce yourself to him when you come out of this kitchen.”

Sometimes I felt like Niall was my child when I scolded him.

I pushed past Niall and went back into the living room, where Jace stood awkwardly, staring at the wall.

I cleared my throat. “Interesting wall, isn’t it?”

Jace turned around, startled, but quickly recollected himself. “You’re husband doesn’t seem to like me very much. I don’t really understand why.”

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled, setting a hand on his arm. “I’m just as clueless as you on that one.”

Niall entered the living room and walked straight over to Jace, a very fake smile pressed across his lips. “Sorry for acting up earlier,” Niall spoke through gritted teeth. “Nice to meet you.”

Jace looked relieved that Niall had attempted to speak to him instead of punching him. They shook hands and Jace introduced himself to Niall. Niall remained silent afterward.

“So,” I droned, feeling a bit awkward. “Why don’t you take a seat?” The three of us sat down, and I purposely sat away from Niall. He was getting on my nerves at the moment.

“I-I’m really sorry,” Jace apologized, “if I’m interrupting anything. I don’t mean to be of any disturbance to you and your family.” His words were supposed to be for Niall and I, but Jace directed them mainly to my scowling asshole of a husband.

“No, no,” Niall voice dripped with sarcasm. “You’re fine. We weren’t doing anything too important.”

I’d never seen Niall behave so sour.

I ignored Niall’s attitude, answering to Jace the way a true, real host would. “It’s fine. It was a mistake and plus, I haven’t seen you in forever.”

Jace smiled at that. “Yeah, seeing you in person is much better than texting.”

Niall’s head shot up and my eyes widened. Jace’s face went pale. Both of us knew he had said the wrong thing. However, Niall kept silent, though his fists clenched at his sides.

“You know what?” Niall spoke suddenly. “I’ll just be up in my office while you two talk. Call we down when he’s gone,” he gestured to Jace, then stormed off without another word.

Jace raised his eyebrows at Niall as he walked away.

“Jace, I’m so sorry,” I gulped, moving to the love seat that he was seated on. “He normally isn’t like that. I have no clue what’s gotten into him.”

Jace chuckled. “Id like to believe the man you married isn’t always like that. That would break my heart and wonder how horrible your taste in men is.”

I grinned at his comment, truly upset with Niall’s behavior. I would have to talk to him about it later.

“So, what exactly were those text messages then?” Jace changed the subject, a dark shadow crossing over his features. I took a deep breath and prepared to tell him. I could trust him, I knew I could. Ther was nothing but kindness in his eyes.

“A few months back, I got a call from a home agent saying that she wanted to sell my dad’s apartment. I told her to hold up so I could go check it out, and I did. That’s where everything really began.”

And so I went on to tell him about finding the scrapbook on the bed, and the terror my family and I had gone through with Nicolette’s window. I explained the heart attack I had gotten when I found the secret messages in the scrapbook. I told him about the text messages, the shooting at Nate’s and Nicolette’s party, the man who had shot Chrissy, and most recently, the assurance that my phone had been completely hacked.

“And that explains the texts you received from my number, even though I never sent them.” I finished. “Whoever is messing with me must have sent the messages for you.”

“But that wouldn’t explain the call. It sounded so much like you.” He frowned, trying to make sense of all the information I had just thrown at him. “They couldn’t have made that up.”

“Who knows what technology can do these days.” I muttered, running a hand stressfully through my hair.

Jace and I were both silent, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle that just couldn’t be solved. Nothing seemed to make any sense to me. Nothing ever did. Jace spoke up at that moment.

“Just one question, Aria.”

“Go on.”

“How did the home agent know to sell your dad’s apartment unless there was someone who told her they wanted it to be sold?”

And just like that, I was back at square one.

---

Long story short, Jace stayed the night and Niall was pissed about it. After lights out, Niall and I stayed up an extra hour fighting about Jace and it left me crying, not because he said anything too hurtful, but because my body was just too tired and weak to deal with anything or anyone until the morning. It was constant, non-negotiable fighting that made my head spin and my knees weak because it just made me want to surrender to Niall and tell Jace to leave. It was half past midnight when my eyes finally shut closed.

But of course, Nate woke up in the middle of the night crying of a sore throat. I stayed up, pacing by his head, holding him and rubbing his back until the medicine kicked in and put him to sleep. It was near two in the morning when I slipped back into bed, careful not to wake Niall. But then, I couldn’t go to sleep.

So I just stayed up and cried.

They were cold tears, and silent sobs of pain and anger. I wiped my tears on my pillow and tried to stop crying because there really wasn’t any point. Then again, there wasn’t a reason to stop.

Silencing my sobs forced an uneasy pressure to my chest that made in pain with every sob, so I sat up slowly in bed and pulled my knees to my chest, continuing to cry that way.

Niall shifted beside me and I silenced myself. I didn’t want to deal with him again. It was a wonder I was in the same bed as him still. But as I watched him, his arms moved around the bed in his sleep, as if searching for me to pull me closer. When he couldn’t find me, he started mumbling things.

“Ari, Ari stop.”

“Don’t…you don’t know what…”

“No, don’t go.”

“Ari, I love you.”

He was having a nightmare and it seemed like I was the victim.

I watched his facial expression change, his eyebrows scrunching together, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. His arms continued to search my side of the bed, trying to find me. I sat frozen on the bed. Everything was frozen. My tears had stopped, and I only watched him.

Niall began kicking lightly, and the mumbling stopped. It was over, I thought. He was okay.

However, his chest began to move up and down rapidly, and short breaths came out of his mouth. His eyes flew open and he jerked up, feeling for me. His fingers touched my arm and then pulled away. I heard him reach over to flip a night lamp on so there was some source of light in the dark room.

“Ari,” he breathed raggedly, squeezing my arm gently. “I thought I… I thought you were – hey, hey are you crying?”

I turned my face away from him, not wanting him to see. He would act all worried about me, and make me forgive him for the way he acted earlier. It was too early to forgive him.

“Aria,” he said softly. “Aria, look at me princess.”

And for some reason, his words just made me break down again. I burst into tears, for lack of better explanation, crumbling into a heap of nothing. Warm arms circled around me, holding me close. I guess that’s just the way Niall and I worked. We could fight and hate each other during the day, curse and wish the other to hell, but by the end of the day we loved each other.

Niall’s fingers traced down the tear marked stains on my cheek and he held me in his arms. I still hated him for his behavior, but I needed someone to hold me.

Niall tucked me back into bed, and hummed a soft tune until my eyes started to droop. As I lingered between unconsciousness and alertness, the soft whisper of Niall’s voice could be heard from my side.

“I don’t know how you cope with what an asshole I am.”

---

I woke up early the next morning at the sound of Nate wailing from his room. He must really be sick. I sighed, thanking god that I could get atleast four hours of sleep before having to get up again. I sat up and grabbed the medicine bottle on the sidetable, preparing to go check on Nate. However, a warm hand pressed against my shoulder from my side.

“I’ll go check on him.” Niall offered in the raspiness of his morning voice. “You get some sleep.”

“But-“

“Sleep,” Niall pressed a single finger to my lips and took the medicine bottle from me, rising from the bed to go to Nate’s bedroom.

Only seconds later, Nate’s crying seized and the soft sound of Niall’s singing could be heard from my place in bed. I was still angry at him. I wanted to go watch Niall sing to Nate, just so it could lighten up my terrible mood, but I felt too weak when I tried to take a step out of bed. I had lost a lot of sleep yesterday night.

Niall entered the room again and climbed back into bed, setting the medicine bottle on his sidetable.

“Leave the magic handling to me.” He whispered, chuckling softly. I smiled, but only a bit as I was already drifting off again.

---

The smell of bacon and eggs knocked consciousness into me and I woke up again. This time, the sun was shining bright through the large windows of our bedroom. Niall stood in front of me, holding a tray of food in his hands.

“Hi.” He smiled, rocking on his feet. How could I be mad when he was so adorable?

“Let me sleep.” I groaned.

“Come on, you’ve got to try this food. Jace and I made it and it’s amazing.”

“Wait, what?” I sat up. “You two did something together?”

“I was going to make breakfast myself,” Niall admitted. “I was preparing the ingredients and then Jace walked into the kitchen and offered to help and I told him that I was a huge asshole to you and him and I apologized.”

“Good boy.”

Niall grinned as if that were the reaction he wanted.

“So you weren’t at each other’s throats the whole time?” I questioned, taking the food from him.

“Nope,” Niall said proudly. “And I took some extra time to make your breakfast perfect, just the way you like it.”

I already spotted a huge flaw, and started to giggle.

“Wha-what?” Niall looked worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Niall,” I grabbed one of his hands. “I absolutely hate apple juice.”

“Shit.” He ears turned pink and he blushed furiously, taking the glass of apple juice away. “I’m sorry. I guess I got mixed up or something. Man, what was I thinking-“

“Niall,” I cleared my throat. “Do you think this is going to make me forgive you for how you acted last night?”

He sucked the inside of his cheek. “Yeesss?”

I glared at him and he quickly changed his answer.

“No!”

But then I grinned and so did he.

“Yes?”

I giggled and stuck some scrambled eggs and bacon into my mouth. Niall watched me with a hopeful yet genuinely worried expression.

“Don’t act like an asshole again.” I told him finally. “Otherwise, were good.”

“Oh thank god,” he exhaled, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I honestly don’t know how you deal with me. I’m such a jerk.”

“Glad you noticed.” I smirked, taking in another forkful of food. “One question though?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you decide you like Jace because he makes good food?” I asked seriously, but Niall still cracked up.

“Well, that’s how it started.” He confessed with a blush. “But then we kind of erm, started talking I guess. We talked about you, and he was really understanding as to why I was hesitant about him. I guess I didn’t realize what a nice person he is.”

“Even when I kept yelling it in your face.”

“Even then,” he shrugged. “I was too caught up in my own thoughts to face reality. And reality is that Jace is actually a nice guy.”

“And what were your thoughts like?” I pressed on.

“I honestly thought he was behind a shooting or the messages or something along those lines. But then again, I’m kind of starting to wonder who I can trust at all.”

“I guess I was just surprised that you kept being so persistent about the thought that Jace was a bad guy. He really isn’t. I don’t think I would’ve let someone into our house if I didn’t feel one hundred percent sure that person was safe.”

“I know,” Niall nodded. “And I should have realized that.”

“On the other hand, I do make some pretty stupid decisions.”

“Don’t we all, babe?” Niall gave me a genuine smile. “Don’t we all?”

I smiled, knowing he was right, but then I thought of something else. "Last night," I reached up to touch his face. "You had a nightmare. W-What happened? What was it about? You kept saying my name."

I watched Niall's face pale.

Notes

quick chapter because i felt like it. two updates in a day. haven't done that in a while. byeee